New Technologies at SEMICON West 2006

Taking place during SEMICON West 2006 will be the ITRS annual public conference, where leading industry experts review the roadmap. This conference offers the latest updates to the 2005 ITRS, and looks for input for the technical working groups. Audience members will be asked for their thoughts on the challenges our industry is facing, as well as ways to keep the industry on its historic growth trends. The following areas will be covered during the conference:

• Emerging research devices
• Emerging research materials
• Metrology
• Lithography
• Front-end processes
• Interconnects

The conference will take place from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 12, at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel. An ITRS/Sematech-sponsored reception will follow. Visit http://public.itrs.net for more information and to register.

Dwain A. Aidala, President & COO, sp3 Diamond Technologies Inc.

The 2005 ITRS, in its emerging materials document, identifies several materials-based thermal management approaches: silicon on diamond (SoD); silicon on silicon carbide; silicon on aluminum oxide on silicon; and isotropically pure silicon. I expect SEMICON West 2006 attendees to have the opportunity to learn more about the transition of some of these approaches from development to scalable productization. The ITRS states, "It would be favorable to have diamond and SiC regions incorporated into chip architectures for thermal management reasons." SEMICON West attendees will be exposed to a SoD product and the manufacturing equipment capable of providing SoD wafers from 100 to 300 mm.

This scalable SoD capability is an item to watch for at SEMICON West, since they will prove to be the enablers of the traditional and continuing path of device and linewidth shrinks. The chip can only get so hot!

Arthur W. Zafiropoulo, Chairman & CEO, Ultratech Inc.

Today, a company's success is directly proportional to the strength of its customer relationships. Equipment manufacturers depend on knowing their customers' requirements to fuel continued innovation and ensure their technologies fit customers' product roadmaps. Clearly, there are few benefits to bringing technologies to the marketplace before customer demand dictates their implementation. This year's SEMICON West show will display the latest technology innovations, all of which will be the result of each exhibiting company's strong customer relationships.

Phil Dembowski, Global Market Manager, Semiconductor Fabrication Materials, Dow Corning

In the transistor area, much of the industry is talking about the use of strain engineering to increase carrier mobility in the channel. A number of different strain-inducing technologies can be combined to significantly improve performance of the next-generation transistor. This opens up opportunities for new silicon-based CVD precursors that can deposit silicon nitride, silicon oxide and silicon germanium at lower temperatures and with specific stress profiles. The implementation of strain engineering at the 45 nm technology node is also likely to delay the use of high-k and metal gates at least a few more years to the 32 nm node.

David Haynes, Director of Sales & Marketing, Surface Technology Systems

For Haynes' thoughts on the advanced packaging industry, see "TAP Trends Push Greater Functionality."

Nick Konidaris, President & CEO, ESI

For chip and equipment makers alike, keeping up with this demand requires continual innovation, but equipment makers' focus must be on ensuring their solutions can truly be implemented. Innovation cannot occur in a vacuum; it must result from an environment of interdependence and cooperation between customers and suppliers. This is made even more vital by the increasingly global nature of the industry; in particular, Asia is becoming a major center of activity, making collaboration even more critical.

Another interesting development that will have far-reaching effects on our industry is that, while end-use applications such as consumer products drive requirements for semiconductors, the reverse is also true. Continual advancements in device size, functionality and power consumption are driving other industries to make the most of these devices. It's a mutually influential relationship, with each pushing the other to continue improving. We are seeing this in all areas, such as wireless connectivity — whether at the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or WiMAX range. These technologies are another key driving force for future semiconductor development and innovation.

As the semiconductor industry matures, its fortunes become tied more closely to those of other industries, such as software. For example, when Microsoft Corp. rolls out Windows Vista, the next generation of the Windows client operating system, this will be a major boost for the memory sector. Why? Every computer will need up to 2 Gb of RAM instead of the 512 Mb they required before. Memory makers will look to their suppliers to help them improve manufacturing efficiencies to accommodate the anticipated jump in demand, ensuring that optimizing device performance and yields remains a top priority.

Todd Miklos, Vice President of Marketing, Advanced Energy Industries Inc.

This is a natural progression. Many semiconductor OEMs offer similar technologies for FPD and solar end users. In fact, some companies have seen technological innovations developed for one industry later contribute to the success of customers in another industry.

Capitalizing on such synergies is good business. But the driving force must be relevant to emerging customer needs. Golden opportunities can usually be found with existing customers — those where we have mutually beneficial partnerships — by listening carefully when they discuss new applications and then helping them be successful in their chosen markets. Many of our customers — OEMs and end users alike — leverage their thin-film expertise in equipment design, processes and fab operations across sister industries. Our job is to leverage innovation wherever possible in ways that contribute to our customers' success, as well as our own.

In maturing as well as emerging industries, intelligently focusing on customers is the best business strategy.

Jerry Cutini, President & CEO, Aviza Technology Inc.

Strategic collaborative efforts have played a critical role for continuing to fuel innovation in our industry. IC manufacturers and equipment suppliers will use this forum to forge interactive and collaborative relationships. Being able to offer the right combination of hardware, process and technology offerings will help facilitate integration across the supply chain.

Specifically, new materials science and development efforts will be required to continue device scaling. By collaborating strategically, chip manufacturers and equipment makers can have a win-win approach across the electronic value chain to address next-generation manufacturing challenges and develop production-worthy solutions.

Industry observers are pointing to a favorable business outlook for the remainder of 2006 and for 2007. Looking specifically at market segments, DRAM and the increasing demand for flash are driving these IC makers to add capacity. Asia, specifically China, will continue to be a region that gains the attention of equipment makers. As with any maturing industry, consolidation throughout the electronics value chain will inherently continue. The companies that will surface above the rest are those that offer unique business models to adapt to customers' rapidly changing needs.

Timothy P. Tobin, President & CEO, Entrepix Inc.

While the latter will always keep this a high-technology industry, the two prior influences create a commodity nature to semiconductor products. A maturing market means a consolidation of players, thus the stakes become higher. With higher stakes comes fierce competition between entities dedicated to market dominance and, therefore, increased margin pressure. This forces companies to approach all aspects of their business from a highly strategic basis first, then from an operational one. Executives and management teams from the most competitive corporations assess and clearly identify their internal core competencies, then look to optimize financial performance by using complementary resources from outside service providers.

In response to these needs, a supply chain of flexible, reliable, long-term solutions has developed. This can be seen in everything from construction, relocation and equipment refurbishment services to sub-fab and facilities management to complete fabrication or single-process module foundries, such as CMP, ion implant or epitaxial growth. Now, more than ever before, companies use outsource providers to reduce costs and risks while accelerating time to revenue both for capturing increased demand on current products and for faster introduction of next-generation advancements. From the world's largest IDMs to startup design houses, nanotechnology-scale IC fabricators to multi-micron MEMS producers, these trends are present and increasing rapidly across virtually all market segments.

Jeff Spiegelman, President, RASIRC

If we focus on contamination from process materials, then we see that new device structures require chemistries that are safer. This has led chemical suppliers to provide low vapor pressure gases that are liquid or solid at room temperature, which makes them more difficult to purify. Bulk gas purification technology no longer applies, since the chemical is in a liquid state until vaporized at point of use. Liquid purification techniques are not yet available. Purification of the vapors is problematic because of condensation in the purifier.

Heating to prevent condensation reduces purifier efficiency or capacity significantly.

To meet these chemical delivery challenges, new flow control and purification devices are being developed, such as advanced designs of vaporizers and liquid flow controllers. Look for technologies that integrate purification, vaporization and flow control to ensure the correct molecules get to the process chamber and impurities are excluded.